Based on true events, The Monuments Men stars George Clooney, Matt Damon, John Goodman, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray, and Jean Dujardin. As WWII comes close to an end, Frank Stokes is tasked with making a team, known as The Monuments Men, to travel through Europe and rescue pieces of art before the Nazi regime steals and/or destroys the works of art. With the preservation of history and culture at stake, The Monuments Men will risk their lives to save as many paintings, statues, and drawings possible.
Going into this film I was not expecting an Academy award worthy film. Or a thrilling action film. I actually didn't really know what to expect from this movie. I wasn't dreading watching this movie and I wasn't particularly excited either. After watching the movie, I still feel the same way: I don't hate it, but it wasn't very good either. The best way to describe this movie is that it is just...bland.
While the performances are good (with remarkable actors, at that), there is no connection made with any of the characters on screen. The movie suffers from an over abundance of characters, actually. There is no time dedicated to each character to truly get to know them on a personal level, as the movie jumps from one set of characters to another, and to another. Writing this review, I didn't even remember the name of the supposed main character played by George Clooney, less the names of the other characters. There are no exciting, or engaging, characters; they are just there, pushing the story along. The characters themselves are boring.
Before the film was released I had heard others commenting that it looks like Oceans 11 during WWII, and while watching The Monuments Men I definitely felt that vibe, but only in some parts of the movie. The movie changes tones very often throughout: from an interesting historic piece, to an Oceans imitation, to a comedy, to an overly dramatic film, and back to a historic tale. This was my biggest problem with the movie: it didn't decide what it wanted to be. It kept trying to be too many different things and that kept pulling me out of it, and thinking, "Huh? What just happened?"
One thing I did like about the story was the idea of "is art worth the lives of these men?". An interesting concept that was explored throughout the film, and executed quite well.
I would have very much loved to see this movie utilize its amazing cast in a better way. Better character development, a consistent tone, and even a better score would have propelled the performances of the cast. While there's nothing that detracts from the movie, there certainly isn't very much that gives it life.
I give The Monuments Men 3.5/10 Señor thumbs up.
This has been SeñorMovie, I'll see you at the theater!
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